CYCLING: Another national title for Mick Ives

Mick Ives made cycling history again when he won the LVRC National Road Race Championships for riders 75 and over, on Sunday,

Ives, who lives in Baginton, is the owner and director of one of the UK’s most successful cycle racing squads Team Jewson-MI Racing-Polypipe and practices what he preaches.

The seven times World Masters Cycling Champion took his total of British Cycling Championships to 78. No other male rider has ever won that many British Championships. Competing over the very tough hilly 40-mile course around Napton, Priors Marston and Staverton on Sunday, defying gale force winds, driving rain and flooded roads, with some of the hillier sections looking more like raging streams it certainly was a race for ‘tough guys’.

Riding in the race that incorporated both the 70-74 age group and the 75 and over, Mick finished 7th overall and was a very clear winner of the 75 age group, beating his team mate Derrick Woodings. Woodings and Ives were team mates for eight years as professionals in the Bantel team and rode events such as Tour of Luxemburg against the world’s leading riders. They have been riding together again as veterans for MI.Racing for the past 12 years. A formidable combination, Woodings is the current UCI World Masters Track Champion but was finally dropped by Mick two miles from the finish. Mick hopes to take his total to 80 by the end of the year as he has three more British Championships to contest.

The Championships were organised by Mike Twelves of Team MI Racing and Sponsored by Jewson.

It wasn’t a good day for Team Jewson rider Howard Baker, riding in the 65+ Championship, his first race of the season. He hit a pot hole in the road, just half mile into his race, which caused him to crash and take out several other riders, resulting in Baker being taken to Warwick Hospital following wounds to his face.

Team Jewson’s Mountain Bike star Peter Busby maintained his brilliant form on Friday evening. Pete finished second to former British Champion Pete Harris at Mallory Park, the last but one event in the Friday evening summer series. Busby has a clear lead in the series. He then followed it up with victory in the Midland series in the Wyre Forest near Kidderminster, where he is lying second in the series. The course was very muddy following overnight rain.

Lady mountain bike star Anne Murray kept the team’s colours to the fore with a brilliant win in the Scottish Mountain Bike series, retaining the championship she has won for the past two years.

Rugby triathlete (Team Jewson) Greg Ashley turned his hand to Ultra Running, when he contested the ‘Dusk to Dawn’ running race at Caton Park. Starting at 7pm and finishing at 7am, Greg covered ten laps of the rain-soaked five-mile circuit, to claim second place in his age group and tenth best overall. Not bad for a cyclist, seeking some training for the Iron Man.